Tuesday, April 7, 2009

I decided I'm going to have to live a lot longer to use up this pile/mess/mountain/stash of mine. Although machine knitting would use it up faster, I'm also doing little hand knitting projects because they are portable for sitting and waiting for appointments. If you're a hand knitter, perhaps you can make use of this easy bootie pattern. I always think it's hard to come up with cute things for boys, but this one came out pretty good. I apologize for not telling you the brand of yarn, but I misplaced the band and can't remember what it was. Anything worsted and heavier would approximate my sample. Another couple of ounces of yarn constructively disposed of !!! Who are they for? One can only hope...

BABY BOY BOOTIES--- an old hand knit pattern4-09 I found this pattern scribbled on a yellowed piece of paper when I was organizing my knitting patterns. There was no author indicated, so I’m assuming it’s one of those patterns that just got passed around and people knit it with their own variations. The booties take a very small amount of yarn and knit up really quickly. For my version, I used two kinds of yarn~ scraps from my stash. With size 6 American needles, the finished size is about 9 months. These two yarns were a little thicker than worsted, so of course a thinner yarn would make a smaller bootie…Directions (both booties the same): CO 30 sts with color 1.Knit 6 rows in stockinette stitch for a rolled top. Change to color 2. Row 7: Make eyelet row- K1, YO, K2 tog, *K3, YO, K 2 tog, * repeat from * to * across, ending K 2. Row 8: Purl. Rows 9-12: Change to color one and knit stockinette for 4 rows.Next row: Change to color 2. K 20, leaving 10 stitches on the left needle, turn work, P10. Work on the 10 middle stitches only for the instep. Knit 14 rows stockinette, ignoring the 10 stitches both sides on the needles. Next row: Pick up and knit 10 sts from the side of the instep, then knit10 sts left on needle. Next row: Knit to the other side of the instep stitches and pick up and knit10 stitches from the other side of the instep. Continue knitting to the end. You’ll have a little pouch sticking out for the toes and foot.Change to color1. Work in garter stitch over all the stitches for 5 rows. Change to color 2. Decrease for toe in garter stitch: Row 1: K 2, K 2 tog, K 20, K 2 tog, K 20, K 2 tog, K 2 Row 2: Knit Row 3: K 2, K 2 tog, K 18, K 3 tog, K 18, K 2 tog, K 2 Bind off. Seam the sole and back of bootie with a mattress stitch, hide yarn ends. Make a 2 or 3 stitch I cord long enough to thread through the ankle stitches and tie a bow.